Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[AwesomeButton]

I haven't tried all of them. I can guarantee that enabling Eothas', Galawain's and Abydon's at the same time is really hardcore.

Galawain's makes combat vs animals when you're at low level pretty tough (Digsite)

Eothas' guarantees you won't be able to grind for XP and money

Abydon's provides a serious money sink in addition to the time limit.

Have all this on PotD / upscale all, and you have to make some careful choices with your party composition and character builds.

 

[Butter]

Which challenges are worth it? I'm thinking of enabling some on my next playthrough, but most of them sound gimmicky. I'm not interested in Eothas' one yet. Will definitely enable Galawain, but other than that I'm not sure.

I'm for sure going to play with Galawain, Abydon, Rymrgand, and Skaen challenges active. Might try Hylea as well.

 

[2house2fly]

Those four for me as well. Magran's sounds really inconvenient (I have a family so might need to pause at any second) Berath's sounds annoying (how long do resurrect spells even take to cast? 6 seconds seems incredibly restrictive) Hylea's sounds infuriating (a game-long escort mission? Escorting a CHILD??) and Eothas's sounds like it'd be a bitch. I'm hoping the remaining four challenges go the route of adding extra mechanics to bear in mind, and I like Rymrgand's because it will affect the actual sailing

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Abyndon+Eothas+Rymgrand seems like a winning combo for me. The combination of money sink and time limit will add serious element of attrition that should make for a brutal challenge.

Most of others are pointless. Galawain might be okay, but I've already played like 10 runs of tutorial island (and gave up on the playthrough shortly after) so at this point I just want it to be done quickly, not deal with super buffed beasts at the digsite. Magran sounds pointless - I can easily build a party that will play itself but it would be incredibly boring to play. Berath, same thing. Escort mission, no thank you. Skaen is just dumb.

 

[Parabalus]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

 

[Lacrymas]

Skaen might add to the atmosphere in the dungeons and that would be cool, but I don't think it's going to affect difficulty all that much as I don't rely on individual pulling of mobs anyway. Galawain affects the game in the most direct way. Abydon might be good for a money sink so you can't swim in consumables and good food, as long as you can repair in the field and doesn't just add tedium. Same with Rymrgand, although I don't like the ship content, so uuugghh. Berath is kinda like ironman and the same tactics that work there will work here, so whatevs. Magran switches genres on me, no thanks. Escorting Vela for Hylea sounds kinda dumb and tedious. I guess we'll see what the other gods will bring.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

I never really had any money problems at all.

Leave Port Maie, buy 3 imperial cannons, fill last cannon slot with the White March cannon, spend next hour killing all of the bounty ships using the starter sloop and you're swimming with gold and mastery level items. Then spend some time robbing shopkeepers. The Red Hand - free. Legendary plate armor and legendary sabre on Crookspur - free. Devil of Caroc's armor - free. Bunch of other shit and you're pretty much set up for the entire game.

 

[Parabalus]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

I never really had any money problems at all.

Leave Port Maie, buy 3 imperial cannons, fill last cannon slot with the White March cannon, spend next hour killing all of the bounty ships using the starter sloop and you're swimming with gold and mastery level items. Then spend some time robbing shopkeepers. The Red Hand - free. Legendary plate armor and legendary sabre on Crookspur - free. Devil of Caroc's armor - free. Bunch of other shit and you're pretty much set up for the entire game.

To upgrade Red Hand to Legendary you need 100k gold. Ofc you can use the free items Leg items from the getgo, but that has nothing to do with enchanting. If you want to experiment a bit it's expensive.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

The point of Abydon's challenge is that it prevents you from heavily upgrading your weapons and armor.

You won't have much reason to upgrade your ship anyway, because Eothas' challenge will not allow you to chase bounties around the map, every day is precious for gaining XP until the next checkpoint.

Galawain might be okay, but I've already played like 10 runs of tutorial island (and gave up on the playthrough shortly after) so at this point I just want it to be done quickly, not deal with super buffed beasts at the digsite.

I can't think of areas with lots of beasts encounters apart from the Digsite, Motare o Kozi, and Sayuka.

 

[Parabalus]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

The point of Abydon's challenge is that it prevents you from heavily upgrading your weapons and armor.

You won't have much reason to upgrade your ship anyway, because Eothas' challenge will not allow you to chase bounties around the map, every day is precious for gaining XP until the next checkpoint.

Galawain might be okay, but I've already played like 10 runs of tutorial island (and gave up on the playthrough shortly after) so at this point I just want it to be done quickly, not deal with super buffed beasts at the digsite.

I can't think of areas with lots of beasts encounters apart from the Digsite, Motare o Kozi, and Sayuka.

You don't HAVE to upgrade anything, you find plenty of items to finish the game without accessing the enchanting menu. The important upgrades are 3-6k, the expensive ones are 30-60k, which you can skip if you just use found weapons, but they bring some fun weapons up to par.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

I never really had any money problems at all.

Leave Port Maie, buy 3 imperial cannons, fill last cannon slot with the White March cannon, spend next hour killing all of the bounty ships using the starter sloop and you're swimming with gold and mastery level items. Then spend some time robbing shopkeepers. The Red Hand - free. Legendary plate armor and legendary sabre on Crookspur - free. Devil of Caroc's armor - free. Bunch of other shit and you're pretty much set up for the entire game.

To upgrade Red Hand to Legendary you need 100k gold. Ofc you can use the free items Leg items from the getgo, but that has nothing to do with enchanting. If you want to experiment a bit it's expensive.

Sure, but you don't need to upgrade to Legendary right away. Mastery is more than good enough to clear most of Neketaka and southern part of the map apart from vampire island and maybe the Steel Preacher. At which point you have more loot to haul, rewards from bounties and so forth.

I've had huge money problems on my first run but that's mostly due to blowing fuckton of gold on pointless ship upgrades. Once you don't do that and figure out where all the free/easy to get items are, it's not that expensive to have a setup that is good enough, all the way at least to early-late game.

Also after my first run I've made a custom world-state for powergaming, so that helps.

 

[Parabalus]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

I never really had any money problems at all.

Leave Port Maie, buy 3 imperial cannons, fill last cannon slot with the White March cannon, spend next hour killing all of the bounty ships using the starter sloop and you're swimming with gold and mastery level items. Then spend some time robbing shopkeepers. The Red Hand - free. Legendary plate armor and legendary sabre on Crookspur - free. Devil of Caroc's armor - free. Bunch of other shit and you're pretty much set up for the entire game.

To upgrade Red Hand to Legendary you need 100k gold. Ofc you can use the free items Leg items from the getgo, but that has nothing to do with enchanting. If you want to experiment a bit it's expensive.

Sure, but you don't need to upgrade to Legendary right away. Mastery is more than good enough to clear most of Neketaka and southern part of the map apart from vampire island and maybe the Steel Preacher. At which point you have more loot to haul, rewards from bounties and so forth.

I've had huge money problems on my first run but that's mostly due to blowing fuckton of gold on pointless ship upgrades. Oonce you don't do thatm and figure out where all the free/easy to get items are, it's not that expensive to have a setup that is good enough, all the way at least to early-late game.

Also after my first run I've made a custom world-state for powergaming, so that helps.

You can finish the game solo, ofc you don't need anything.

The enchanting system is pretty fun though, and if you want to enchant several items to try them out you can easily blow 500k+, the ship alone is 200k.

Since you can just use the free items (which are also better than the stuff you would need to enchant anyway, Red Hand is a notable exception, maybe the mortars too) I don't think it adds much to the difficulty, unlike e.g. Galawain.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

The point of Abydon's challenge is that it prevents you from heavily upgrading your weapons and armor.

You won't have much reason to upgrade your ship anyway, because Eothas' challenge will not allow you to chase bounties around the map, every day is precious for gaining XP until the next checkpoint.

Galawain might be okay, but I've already played like 10 runs of tutorial island (and gave up on the playthrough shortly after) so at this point I just want it to be done quickly, not deal with super buffed beasts at the digsite.

I can't think of areas with lots of beasts encounters apart from the Digsite, Motare o Kozi, and Sayuka.

You don't HAVE to upgrade anything, you find plenty of items to finish the game without accessing the enchanting menu. The important upgrades are 3-6k, the expensive ones are 30-60k, which you can skip if you just use found weapons, but they bring some fun weapons up to par.

Ok, but this is not related to what I've said.

 

[Parabalus]

I find there are enough money sinks in the game already, enchanting a single weapon costs 100k gold.

The point of Abydon's challenge is that it prevents you from heavily upgrading your weapons and armor.

You won't have much reason to upgrade your ship anyway, because Eothas' challenge will not allow you to chase bounties around the map, every day is precious for gaining XP until the next checkpoint.

Galawain might be okay, but I've already played like 10 runs of tutorial island (and gave up on the playthrough shortly after) so at this point I just want it to be done quickly, not deal with super buffed beasts at the digsite.

I can't think of areas with lots of beasts encounters apart from the Digsite, Motare o Kozi, and Sayuka.

You don't HAVE to upgrade anything, you find plenty of items to finish the game without accessing the enchanting menu. The important upgrades are 3-6k, the expensive ones are 30-60k, which you can skip if you just use found weapons, but they bring some fun weapons up to par.

Ok, but this is not related to what I've said.

Abydon reducing your number of upgrades would be much more important/harsh if there weren't a bunch of free Legendary equipment waiting for you. Do you disagree with this?

Bounties are a really small amount of money anyway, the majority is selling random superb weapons.

 

[Agesilaus]

The challenges don't actually provide any new content or bonuses, right? It's just shooting yourself in the foot for the sake of it?

I understand that Berath's Blessings can't even be used when you have challenge activated, so I'm going to pass. I like being able to turn on the extra content (merchant at Port Maje, pick-pocket loot, etc), and having the overworld map revealed at the beginning.

 

[Parabalus]

The challenges don't actually provide any new content or bonuses, right? It's just shooting yourself in the foot for the sake of it?

I understand that Berath's Blessings can't even be used when you have challenge activated, so I'm going to pass. I like being able to turn on the extra content (merchant at Port Maje, pick-pocket loot, etc), and having the overworld map revealed at the beginning.

Next patch you'll be able to mix and match.

 

[Quillon]

The challenges don't actually provide any new content or bonuses, right? It's just shooting yourself in the foot for the sake of it?

I understand that Berath's Blessings can't even be used when you have challenge activated, so I'm going to pass. I like being able to turn on the extra content (merchant at Port Maje, pick-pocket loot, etc), and having the overworld map revealed at the beginning.

Next patch you'll be able to mix and match.

If there won't be a combined point pool(taking on a challenge gives you points for blessings) and still be in a separate/hidden menu, it'd still be shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Abydon reducing your number of upgrades would be much more important/harsh if there weren't a bunch of free Legendary equipment waiting for you. Do you disagree with this?

Getting those isn't that easy if you also have a time limit to think about.

Overall, go and try it out.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

The challenges don't actually provide any new content or bonuses, right? It's just shooting yourself in the foot for the sake of it?

I understand that Berath's Blessings can't even be used when you have challenge activated, so I'm going to pass. I like being able to turn on the extra content (merchant at Port Maje, pick-pocket loot, etc), and having the overworld map revealed at the beginning.

Next patch you'll be able to mix and match.

If there won't be a combined point pool(taking on a challenge gives you points for blessings) and still be in a separate/hidden menu, it'd still be shooting yourself in the foot.

If you've beaten the whole game you should have more then enough blessing points to take all the ones that improve QoL without directly boosting your PC.

 

[2house2fly]

They're considering unlocking the blessings as well. Lol at the challenge modes being considered "just shooting yourself in the foot for the sake of it". Why would I play on anything other than the easiest difficulty??

 

[AwesomeButton]

The challenges don't actually provide any new content or bonuses, right? It's just shooting yourself in the foot for the sake of it?

It's more challenge for the sake of challenge I think.

 

[Parabalus]

Abydon reducing your number of upgrades would be much more important/harsh if there weren't a bunch of free Legendary equipment waiting for you. Do you disagree with this?

Getting those isn't that easy if you also have a time limit to think about.

Overall, go and try it out.

What are the dates for each MQ? Can't find them listed anywhere online.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Abydon reducing your number of upgrades would be much more important/harsh if there weren't a bunch of free Legendary equipment waiting for you. Do you disagree with this?

Getting those isn't that easy if you also have a time limit to think about.

Overall, go and try it out.

That's a good point. Powergaming your way to easy levels and gear is gonna be a lot harder when you are on the clock.

 

[AwesomeButton]

What are the dates for each MQ? Can't find them listed anywhere online.

I don't remember. From landing on Maje island to finishing the Digsite, I think it was a week. And from then on it's something like 20 days to Neketaka, 20 days to Hasongo, 20 days to Ashen Maw, and 20 days to Ukaizo. Roughly.

 

[Lacrymas]

That's a good point. Powergaming your way to easy levels and gear is gonna be a lot harder when you are on the clock.

An argument can be made that this is what you should be doing with your limited time. Get the powergamey items and xp, then start working towards everything else that will now be easier due to the items you get at the start. Since the point is getting to Eothas, you don't need to do most of the stuff, just rush towards as much xp and items as possible.